Rank in Ouro climbed through near-death trials, since every step up the Shard ladder bought finer mana control and physical power.
Monsters climbed the exact same ladder, except their brutal bodies rewrote themselves mid-combat, sprouting new limbs between rapid heartbeats.
The creature in this clearing chose the middle of their fight for its sudden evolution, and the hardening bone carapace marked an impending lethal deadline.
His old tutors spent whole afternoons droning about rank progression theory, yet none of them ever mentioned mid-combat monster rank promotions.
'Master Varos droned about textbook theory for three winters... but this muddy clearing taught me far more in three brutal minutes.'
The southern slums held their own ruthless hierarchy, where the fighter who lost learned faster than the fool who won with polite grace.
"It was mutating before we even arrived," he muttered under his breath, circling the abomination with his jaw clenched tight. "That is why it stood right back up after she crushed its skull."
'Awful timing... out of every wild beast in these woods, this overgrown pig chose today for its grand promotion ceremony.'
He leaped forward and brought his refined blade down upon the creature's thick skull with the full momentum of his lunging body.
The beast raised a mutated, clawed forelimb to block, causing the tempered steel to ring loudly and bounce away from hardened bone without drawing a single drop of blood.
"Figures," he grunted, wincing as the violent shockwave rattled through his forearms. "Refined edge or not, bone armor shrugs it off... this hunt is going to get very expensive."
'Even an upgraded fifteen-credit blade bounces off... the problem lies within my cheap budget, not my sword arm.'
He kicked off the creature's armored limb before it could snap shut around his ankle, sliding backward across the churned forest loam.
His eyes flicked toward the translucent stream panel floating in his peripheral vision, where the comment column scrolled with unprecedented velocity.
'Earth spectators surrender useful tactical suggestions the second somebody challenges their pride, making them my most valuable tool.'
"Chat!" he yelled, flashing a reckless smirk toward the floating camera interface while dodging another vicious swipe. "Highest donation decides how this thing dies!"
"Auction closes the second one of us stops breathing!" he added, ducking beneath a shower of flying splinters.
Golden light flashed across his peripheral vision while the enraged beast scraped its jagged claws through the torn forest loam.
[ Donation - CringeSlayer91: 20 Credits ]
[ CringeSlayer91: break the tusks first, they are the pretty part of the model ]
A secondary notification covered the interface while he gave ground toward the tree line where Juna remained motionless and bleeding.
[ Donation - ShadowMage44: 50 Credits ]
[ ShadowMage44: cut both front legs, then finish it while it crawls ]
"Fifty credits for crippling the legs," he chuckled darkly, parrying a glancing blow with the flat of his blade. "Cold math... I respect the clean accounting."
He glanced sideways toward the mossy boulder where the wolf girl lay, his smirk softening with quiet concern.
"You are missing a great show over there, Juna," he called out softly, his eyes darting back to the monster. "Wake up whenever you are ready."
'She is still breathing over there... slow, shallow, and stubborn, which represents the only positive news in this entire situation.'
[ Donation - JunaFanClub: 100 Credits ]
[ JunaFanClub: i do not care how it dies, just make it suffer for touching Juna ]
"A hundred credits from the fan club," he noted with a sharp, humorless grin. "Buys pure suffering by the hour... strange purchase, but I will gladly take your coins."
[ Donation - NewViewer_02: 30 Credits ]
[ NewViewer_02: payback for the wolf girl, add my coin to the pile ]
"Thirty for simple revenge," he shouted over the beast's guttural growls. "Welcome to the bidding floor!"
[ Donation - LurkerNoMore: 75 Credits ]
[ LurkerNoMore: go for the eyes, if it cannot see you then it cannot aim ]
"Seventy-five to gouge the eyes," he laughed aloud, weaving past a vicious swipe of its cloven hooves. "The quiet ones always place the cruelest bids."
He yielded another pace of terrain while bantering with the stream, keeping his eyes locked onto the advancing mutated beast.
More notifications stacked rapidly as the comment section erupted into pure chaos, driving the donation total beyond his wildest morning calculations.
[ Donation - DarkBlade: 500 Credits ]
[ DarkBlade: no notes on the method, just do not turn this into a two parter ]
The enormous donation pinned itself at the very top of the glowing interface, stunning the other bidders into sudden, reverent silence.
[ Donation - JunaFanClub: 25 Credits ]
[ JunaFanClub: adding to my pile, still voting no mercy ]
[ NewViewer_02: i am officially priced out, the rich ruined my first ever auction ]
"Five hundred to finish the job without dragging it out," he whistled in genuine awe, shaking his head. "That covers my living rent in the capital for two full years."
'They donate like absolute madmen... and I am certainly not about to convince a single one of them to stop.'
[ Donations Received: 800 Credits ]
[ Wallet Balance: 815 Credits ]
[ Stream ]
[ Viewers: 44 ]
'Eight hundred universal credits just to vote on a monster carcass... and people from Earth have the nerve to call me greedy.'
He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, testing the weight and balance of the refined divine shop blade once more.
The refined indigo temper along the spine gave the steel a solid, reliable heft despite the weapon's modest initial price tag.
'A clean benchmark of my base physical attributes without relying upon the golden Ring... my legs feel remarkably nimble today.'
Days ago, a common horned rabbit drove him to near physical collapse, yet today he squared off alone against a mutating apex predator.
"Come on then, ugly," he provoked, beckoning with two curved fingers of his left hand. "Show me what that grotesque new body can actually do."
They traded three rapid passes while he mapped its turning radius, shaving the margin of error thinner with each calculated strike.
The creature's massive bulk prevented it from reversing direction quickly, leaving a brief window of vulnerability whenever its momentum carried it forward.
Jagged claws tore long, ugly furrows through the loam wherever his feet stepped moments before, churning the soil into wet mud.
'Fights just like a seasoned debt collector from the slums... patient, calculating, and waiting for a single clumsy misstep.'
The mutated monster dug its rear hooves into the dirt and lunged like a catapulted boulder directly toward his exposed chest.
He charged straight into the beast's trajectory, vaulted cleanly over the wicked tusks, and dropped his weight directly onto its muscular shoulders.
The creature thrashed violently and slammed its flank against an ancient pine trunk, attempting to scrape him from its back.
'Its forelimbs finished setting while I was in midair... the hardened hide resisted even my upgraded steel blade.'
'Unreasonable physical defense... let us test how that thick skull handles concentrated magical energy instead.'
He released his grip on the coarse bristles, channeling dense mana into his right fist until his bare knuckles glowed brilliant white.
"Let us see how tough that thick skull really is!" he roared, putting his full hip into the downward punch.
The blow landed like a falling iron anvil, driving the creature's snout deep into the earth with a concussive shockwave.
The monster collapsed into the newly formed crater, throwing pulverized stone and dark dirt across the surrounding forest clearing.
He vaulted off its back before it could counterattack, landing lightly in a defensive crouch as dust filled the shallow crater.
The creature's muscular hind legs twitched violently, and its bloodied snout emerged from the rubble with renewed, terrifying predatory fury.
It dragged itself upright upon three limbs, as the trio of corrupted purple Shards continued their steady, unhurried magical rotation.
'Poured everything into that strike... and it climbed right back up as if nothing happened.'
'The fan club demands prolonged suffering while pragmatists want blinding... a blind monster cannot aim whatever grotesque weapon it grows next.'
"The eyes have it at seventy-five credits!" he shouted toward the stream, flashing a tense grin. "Outbid it in ten seconds... or the tusks get blinded!"
The abomination moved first, opening its gaping maw wide while dark elemental mana gathered at the base of its throat.
"Well... that is definitely new," he muttered, his smile vanishing as he sensed the spiking arcane pressure.
[ ShadowMage44: it is winding up something huge, get out of the firing line now ]
[ Mutation Progress: 74% ]
The dark orb swelled rapidly past the size of a human skull, distorting the surrounding air like blistering summer heat waves.
'Every instinct screams to run... but retreating grants it a clean firing lane, so basic tactical logic demands an immediate charge.'
The ground trembled beneath his feet as the concentrated mana pulled inward, forming a pitch-black sphere that swallowed ambient sunlight.
'What kind of wild boar mutation comes equipped with ranged artillery... standard three-Shard beasts never fire ranged magical beams.'
He sprinted forward across the clearing, betting his life on the principle that an interrupted spell is an ineffective spell.
[ CringeSlayer91: he charged INTO the cannonball, this man has no survival instincts and i refuse to look away ]
The monster dropped its snout toward the earth before he arrived, discharging the compressed blast directly into the forest floor.
'I cannot see a thing in here... momentum is carrying me straight into an impenetrable dust cloud.'
'The world is spinning like a broken wagon wheel... but that strange human is still fighting for my sake.'
'Move, legs... he is nothing like the cruel hunters who burned my village. Move...!'
The dense particulate cloud muffled all surrounding sound, swallowing the clearing in an eerie fog of pulverized stone and ash.
He strained his ears to isolate distinct footsteps, sorting scrapes from ragged breathing while circling cautiously through the blinding grey haze.
'A silent predator inside a blinding dust screen... either it stopped breathing, or it acquired advanced stealth capabilities mid-fight.'
He planted his feet firmly in the dirt, keeping his blade raised at guard as the ground continued to vibrate under his soles.
A hulking silhouette burst through the ash on his left flank with terrifying velocity, giving zero audible combat warning.
A brutal claw caught him across the ribs before he could parry, hurling his body through the air like a ragdoll.
He struck the hard ground on his left shoulder, coughing up crimson blood as the breath tore violently from his lungs.
"Ouch," he wheezed, clutching his side with a pained grimace. "Pretty sure three of my ribs just filed for early retirement."
[ Health: 47 / 100 ]
[ Condition: Fractured Ribs - Left Side ]
[ Warning: Continued Combat Aggravates Injury ]
'Forty-seven health with cracked ribs... at least the wallet finally contains enough credits to purchase proper divine remedies.'
'A healing salve costs fifteen credits while the wallet holds eight hundred, but zero coins buy a pause between violent strikes.'
The translucent system panel recorded every statistic, while anxious viewers debated whether their host survived the devastating surprise attack.
[ CringeSlayer91: where did he go, somebody say something ]
He wiped his bloodied mouth with the back of his wrist, leaving a grim crimson smear across his skin.
[ JunaFanClub: is that blood on the lens, please tell me that is dust ]
[ DarkBlade: the two parter clause just activated, somebody tell him to wrap it up ]
[ CringeSlayer91: ribs broken and still hosting, streamer of the year behavior ]
Across the ruined clearing, a slender hand dug deep into the churned loam as sharp pointed ears twitched upward through the gloom.
'Running a chaotic auction while coughing up blood... and this reckless idiot human has the audacity to lecture me about safety.'
Her eyes opened slowly while sharp light claws bit into the soil, fueled by a surge of pure, protective fury.
"Voting is still open," he coughed, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the grass with a defiant smirk. "Someone outbid the eyes before this thing tracks me down."
A slow tread crunched through the settling dust, advancing toward the sound of his voice with deliberate predatory malice.
The beast's ragged breathing rattled through the foggy air like grinding millstones, trailing foul purple vapors across the damp grass.
Hajin backed carefully toward a wide granite outcrop, nursing his bruised ribs while his eyes tracked the lumbering shadow through the haze.
He positioned his feet carefully against the granite footing, ensuring the stone blocked any blind rush from his exposed flank.
Behind the jagged rock, Juna remained sheltered from the monster's direct line of sight, her light claws digging quietly into the moss.
If the beast charged again, it would have to break itself against solid stone before it could reach her.
[ Viewers: 47 ]
[ Chat Frenzy Detected ]
[ DarkBlade: he is funneling the charge toward the rock wall, watch his footwork ]
[ CringeSlayer91: eighty credits on the rock surviving, five hundred on the streamer ]